​It can be frustrating when you know what you want to do, or even should do, but you can’t get yourself to do it. Exercising regularly is something we all know that we should do, but few of us seem to be able to build that habit.

If you can create an exercise habit, you’ll never have to motivate yourself to exercise again!
 
Try these tips to make exercise a habit:

1. Set a goal. In this case, set a goal to exercise a certain number of times each week for a specific amount of time. For example, you may want to exercise four times a week for 30 minutes each time. Keep in mind that the more frequently the activity occurs, the easier it is to develop a habit.
   
   
2. Choose a form of exercise that appeals to you. There’s no reason to choose swimming as a form of exercise if you don’t enjoy swimming. Choose an activity that you can enjoy.
   
   
3. Find the best way to enjoy it. Walking on a treadmill can be boring. However, if you can walk on a treadmill and chat with a friend or watch TV, it might be more enjoyable. Playing basketball in an organized league can be more enjoyable than running up and down the court by yourself.
   
   
4. Plan exercise into your schedule. Exercise is like saving money. If you only do it when it’s convenient, you’ll never do it. Waiting until you have time to exercise is a mistake. Make time and build it into your schedule.
   
   
5. Have workout buddy. You’ve let yourself down countless times in the past when it comes to exercising. What will one more time matter? You probably feel less comfortable about letting someone else down. Find a partner and be reliable.
   
   
6. Stay present while getting ready. It’s the first step that’s challenging. It’s not hard to work out once you’re at the gym. The challenging part is changing your clothes, putting on your shoes, and getting out the front door. Avoid thinking about the drive, the workout, or anything else other than putting on your shoes and closing the front door behind you.
   
   
7. Reward yourself during and after your workout. Making yourself feel good about working out is one of the keys to repeating that behavior in the future. Tell yourself how good you’re doing. Jump up and down afterwards and tell yourself, “Yes, I did it!” That’s enough of a reward if you can generate some real enthusiasm.
   
   
8. Visualize the long-results. Remember why you’re exercising in the first place. It’s to be healthier, feel better, and look better. Visualize yourself six months from now. Imagine how great you’ll look and feel. Imagine the reactions of others and the praise of your physician.
   
   
9. Avoid holding negative thoughts about your exercise. If you tell yourself, “I don’t want to work out today. It’s boring” while sitting at your desk in the afternoon, you’ll be less likely to do it. Catch yourself and change your thoughts to something positive.
   
   
10. ​Allow for slips. Even Olympic athletes miss the occasional workout. It happens to everyone. It’s            important to resolve to not miss the next workout. Avoid using one misstep as an excuse to abandon your workout habit altogether.

​Getting in shape is easy if you can develop the habit of regular exercise. The exercise isn’t the challenge. Developing the habit of exercising in the real challenge. You don’t need motivation or self-discipline if you have a habit.
 
Do you need to psych yourself up to brush your teeth? No, because you have a habit in place. That’s how easy exercising can be once you’ve made a habit of it.

We all know exercise is good for us, and especially if we’re needing to drop a few pounds.  But how do we get ourselves motivated to exercise?
 
Getting ready for bed involves more than putting on your pajamas and turning out the lights. Create rituals that will help you stay in shape. Your evening activities can help you get more fit, lose weight and feel more energetic.
 
Below are 5 simple bedtime rituals you can incorporate into your evening routine to help you get motivated to exercise.

​Do These Things Before Bed to Help You Get Motivated to Exercise
 
How can you motivate yourself to leave your nice warm bed and hit the jogging trail? Spend the night before gearing up for your workout.

​​When it comes to weight loss, each day is a brand-new day and a fresh new start.
 
Creating and maintaining healthy habits before going to bed can help you to take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead, so that you wake up the next morning a little bit lighter and tad bit healthier. 
 
These bedtime habits that encourage you to eat healthier are easy to implement, and will give you the best possible chance of success the next day.
 
Below are 7 simple bedtime habits you can incorporate into your routine to help you control your eating habits, eat healthier and naturally lose weight.

​It can be tough to stick to a healthy eating plan when you’re tempted by junk food or too busy to think about what you’re going to eat ahead of time. Use the quiet hours before bed to focus on how you can give your body the nutrients it needs without excess calories.

​Have you ever found yourself really serious about your weight loss goal, highly motivated, working diligently on it for a while, and then you find you just quit? This is such a common issue I hear with clients who come to me for help with weight loss. 
 
It can be very frustrating and discouraging. There are different ways you may have given up in the past, but what’s important is identifying the reason that you give up or quit trying to reach your weight loss goal. When you identify the problem, you can then discover the solution.
 
I want you to visualize right now where your life would be if you never quit anything. Just imagine how much you would have accomplished!  How great you would look… how healthy you would feel!

So, why do you quit? Here are 9 Common Reasons:

• You’re afraid you will fail. It’s common to be afraid of failing, but what are you actually afraid of?   Are you afraid of what others think? You might be surprised at how little other people care (seriously!). Everyone else is far too concerned with their own lives.  Are you worried that you’re not good enough? Maybe you’re not (right now). That doesn’t mean you can’t learn from your short-term failure and use it to be successful next time.

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• You’re afraid you’ll succeed. This one might be surprising, but many people are afraid of success. It can be comfortable to continue living the life you’re living, even if you want change. In order to succeed, you must want change or improvement more than comfort (and sometimes that is not comfortable!) Step outside your comfort zone.

• You’re uncomfortable with uncertainty. Does an uncertain future drive you crazy? Remember that the best things in life are often uncertain. I know it’s more comfortable to stay at the status quo, but allowing yourself to be comfortable with uncertainty in life can teach you so much and allow you to reach your goals.

• You’re not motivated enough to put in the necessary work. Maybe your “why”, your reason for change, just isn’t attractive enough to you to warrant the time and effort it requires. Think about what you’re going to gain if you keep on going the way you have been going. Six months from today, how do you want to look and feel?

• Insufficient results or reward. Maybe you’ve been toiling away for a while, but you haven’t seen significant results yet. This is common when starting any change. You might be putting in a lot of effort, but you’re not seeing the drop in numbers on the scale yet. The solution is to keep your eye on the long-term outcome you desire.

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• Feeling overwhelmed. When you have too much on your plate, the overwhelm you feel can be too much to handle. Try to cut back on other areas of your life that aren’t critical. Stress plays a big role in weight loss.  Learning how to handle stress more effectively is vital.

• Procrastination. Procrastination is a habit. Entire books have been written on procrastination, so plenty of information is out there on the topic. One quick tip is to remember that procrastination is largely about getting started. If you focus on just getting started, the rest will often take care of itself.

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• Listening to the wrong people. Sometimes people with the same challenges as you want you to stay the same. Get your advice from experts who want you to succeed and can help guide you along the way.

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• Your goals are massive. If you are trying to reach huge milestones overnight, it’s a recipe for disaster. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you won’t reach your weight loss goal overnight.  Start with smaller, manageable, realistic goals and move on from there.

Quitting is the enemy of success. It’s not easy to fail if you never quit, so learning how to continue when you feel like quitting is important. Learn why you give up and take the appropriate countermeasures. You’ll improve your odds of success a thousand-fold.

We spend too much energy trying to change from the outside in. While it’s possible to force yourself to behave in a certain way, it’s nearly impossible to maintain that change if you don’t make the necessary inner changes to support that behavior.

If this weren’t true, we would all eat healthy food, go to the gym, do our homework, and be perfect people.

The most effective way to change your behavior and your results is to make inner changes:

1. Beliefs. Your beliefs impact your behavior. If you think failure is bad, you’ll behave very differently than someone that believes failure is just part of the game. What are some significant beliefs? Consider these:
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• Money is the root of all evil versus money creates freedom
• People can be trusted versus people are greedy and selfish
• Life is a game versus life is a competition
• Success is all that matter versus happiness is all that matters
• Freedom is the most important thing versus admiration is the most important thing.
• Healthy food is boring versus healthy good can taste great

It’s easy to see how different beliefs can lead to different approaches to life and different outcomes.

2. Thoughts. Your beliefs influence your thoughts. But your thoughts can also be chosen. Consider your fears. You can’t be afraid of something unless you have a scary thought to go along with it. Is a baby afraid of a snake, a gun, or a scary movie? They have no concept of these things.

• The thoughts you hold affect your mood and your focus. They also influence the things you pursue and avoid. Managing your thoughts can shape your behavior out in the world.

3. Attitude. Your attitude affects your view of the world and your behavior. An optimist creates a different life than a pessimist. Are you angry or happy? Are you hopeful or fearful?  Even how you view failure has a huge impact on your approach to living. People who avoid failure at all costs also avoid success. View failure as a learning experience and something that comes with the territory. If your attitude is to embrace failure, your level of success will increase.

It’s important to monitor and change your behaviors if you want different results. However, your behavior is heavily influenced by your beliefs, thoughts and attitude.

Focusing on making the necessary inner changes can give better results than simply trying to modify your behavior. Make the inner changes you need in order to manifest the behavior and results you want in your life.